A new digital world order

Category: Physics
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Everyone knows by now about the LIGO announcement regarding the detection of gravitational waves. However, some things must be clarified about the relation of the detection to claims of a test of the theory of general relativity and about the way the media has presented this to the general public.

Should scientific theories be falsifiable? Many insist that they must be. Others argue that theories are useful even when they are not falsifiable. In a recent blog, Noah Smith argues that if theories make no claims about the physical world, then it should not matter.

A science presenter and comic, Steven Mould, not long ago made a video about a chain of beads that seem to defy gravity and levitate from a beaker. Actually this is a normal phenomenon but modeling its dynamics is not trivial. Most explanations do not take into account the mass of the beads because they are purely kinematic in nature but, obviously, a complete model of such phenomenon should do and whether the observed motion takes place clearly depends on the mass of the beads.

The hypeloop idea by Tesla Motors’ Elon Musk has received heavy criticism since it was announced a few days ago. There are objections dealing with many aspects of the project, including dynamics, cost, safety, etc. In this post I deal with the dynamics issue and I argue that lateral accelerations can be kept within acceptable bounds by suitable banking and control of the velocity profile, something that is feasible with linear motors.

The time has come for a serious evaluation of the impact of academic practices in some fields and their impact on human behavior and values. Maybe the world needs now less science and more common sense.